Prefix Photo 24
Big Skies
Release Party:
Thursday, November 24, 2011, 7–10 PM
Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art
124–401 Richmond Street West
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5V 3A8
Gallery hours:
Wednesday–Saturday, 12–5 PM
Subscribe at www.prefix.ca
Cover photo: Trevor Paglen
Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art is pleased to announce the release of the twenty-fourth issue of Prefix Photo magazine. On the subject of big skies, editor Scott McLeod writes: “To gaze upon the sky is to reflect upon the infinite. With the rare exception of astronauts, one engages with the sky from one’s position on the ground. Even when searching the cosmos with the mightiest telescope, one is invariably limited by one’s earthbound position. How, then, to separate the big sky from little Earth? It can’t be done, for our appreciation of the one necessitates our consciousness of the other.” The notion of big skies resonates strongly with the art and texts represented within the magazine, as follows:Curator Sarah Robayo Sheridan offers close readings of the artist’s books Clear Sky and LA Air by Bruce Nauman, with specific attention to their materials and methods of production in relation to their purchase on documentary representation. She examines the artworks in the context of other works by the artist and those of his peers, noting, among other influences, that of Californian cultural geography.
Curator Scott McLeod examines a host of new and recent works from the Canadian Prairies. Noting that the prairie landscape reveals in its putative emptiness a complex range of subtle variations, the author offers an interpretive analysis of the work of artists Scott Benesiinaabandan and Kerri-Lynn Reeves, Deanna Bowen, Evin Collis, Kandis Friesen, Don Gill, Meghan Krauss, Danny Singer, Diana Thorneycroft and Time and Desire. Penetrating the accumulation of sentiment and resisting the lure of romance and nostalgia, these artists offer compelling alternatives to official and popular histories.
Writer Claire Christie combines family history and inherited memories with two distinct sets of images: vintage photographs from her grandfather and contemporary stills by her brother-in-law, filmmaker Peter Lynch. In so doing, she conveys a personal narrative of the southern Alberta prairie, evoking the region’s mythic dimension and illustrating its enduring appeal.
Artist and writer Kathleen Ritter conveys her childhood experience of shooting her first roll of film, citing the giant rift between the imagined and the actual image, and referencing the concepts of amodal perception and active viewing. She questions: “What do we do with the images we see—what is left out, edited or magnified by the activity of looking? What is an image’s retinal afterlife, its affect, its sensory residue? How is an image misremembered?”
Other contributors include Willie Doherty, John Haney, Aidan McNeill, Trevor Paglen, Mungo Thomson, Jill Glessing, Robyn McCallum, Sarah Munro and Carol-Ann Ryan.
For more information on the release party for Prefix Photo 24 or to subscribe, please visit our website: www.prefix.ca.
Prefix Photo is published by Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art, Inc., a registered charitable organization that fosters the appreciation and understanding of contemporary photography, media and digital arts. Prefix Photo is available by subscription and in fine bookstores and newsstands in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Spain, Greece, Switzerland, Ireland, Singapore and Hong Kong.
Prefix Photo acknowledges its Supporting Sponsor Steam Whistle Brewing and its Official Catering Sponsor à la Carte Kitchen for their assistance with the release party held for Prefix Photo 24 in Toronto.
Prefix Photo acknowledges the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund (CPF) for its publishing activities. Prefix Photo also acknowledges the assistance of its staff, volunteers and patrons, as well as the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts. The Ontario Arts Council is an agency of the Government of Ontario.
For more information, please contact:
Alysha Rajkumar
416.591.0357
info@prefix.ca
www.prefix.ca
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